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She said: “I come back to my central point. And I want to make my point to any stakeholders as well as to Ruth Davidson and the chamber.

“The reason we have this legislative process which involves this in-depth, stage one consideration by a committee, is to allow stakeholders to put forward the points of view and to argue for any changes that they think are necessary.

“At the end of that part of the process, the government will give that due consideration. That is the proper process.

“Every member in this chamber, every member has now been a member through the legislative process on at least one or more bills. Changes are regularly made to bills.”

Changes are regularly made to bills

Nicola Sturgeon

At this point, Scottish Conservative MSP broke out in laughter at the remark made by the First Minister.

Ms Sturgeon continued with her speech insisting that the parliament must not lose sight of the issue, which was the greater protection of the welfare of Scottish children.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives snapped back at the First Minister urging her to scrap her proposals and to start again with a fresh white paper.